Pietro Chiesa, Floor Lamp “Luminator”, Italy, 1963

Measurements
33 Ø cm x 186h cm
12,99 Ø in x 73,22h in

Literature
Domus, n. 115, luglio, 1937, p. 16, pubblicita`; F. Deboni, Fontana Arte. Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, Max Ingrand, Allemandi Editore, Torino, 2012, ill. 95, 96.

Condition
Some dents on the edges and corrosions over the lamshade and base.

Biography
Pietro Chiesa (born 1892, Milan–died 1948, Paris) was a leading Italian Modernist and Art Deco designer best known for his artistic glass furnishing pieces. He belonged to the Swiss Ticino family of artists. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and then trained as an apprentice at the studio of furniture designer Giovanni Battista Gianotti. In 1932, Gio Ponti approached Pietro Chiesa to join him and Luigi Fontana—who was one of the largest manufacturers of glass in Italy and became its artistic director. In 1933, Pietro Chiesa merged the Bottega di Pietro Chiesa with Fontana’s studio, and together, Chiesa, Luigi Fontana, and Gio Ponti formed company that specialized in furniture, lighting, glass windows, and furnishing accessories. It was during Chie- sa’s tenure as artistic director of Fontana Arte that he created hundreds of extremely creative pieces—all bearing his imprimatur of the highest excellence in glass craftsmanship and the techniques he applied to modern materials. His most well-known pieces include the Fontana table, which was made from a single band of bent clear glass; the Cartoccio vase; and the lacquered brass Luminator floor lamp. Despite the obvious modernity of most of his pieces, one can see how Chiesa was influenced by the classical forms. He also created what would become Fontana Arte’s signature colors of the time, deep blue and green, which Chiesa integrated successfully into many of his creations.